1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture of Italian cheese and, more particularly, to an improved provolone cheese molding apparatus and mold assembly therefor for forming individual hot provolone cheese loaves and facilitating the cooling of the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Italian cheese such as provolone cheese, during its manufacture, is extruded from a cheese-making machine which both mixes and stretches the cheese, under heat, prior to its extrusion. At the time of extrusion, the cheese is quite warm, well above room temperature, and the cheese must be molded into individual loaf form and cooled. The loaves may be of different sizes, but generally, constitute several pounds of cheese and are in somewhat the shape of loaves of bread.
In that regard, in the manufacture of provolone cheese, it is conventional to employ a machine or apparatus for forming loaves of uniform size, the machine or apparatus being constituted by a horizontal, fixed table bearing on its upper face or surface, a reciprocating slide constituted by a plate-like member which reciprocates horizontally and is guided at opposed edges by suitable slots within guide means fixed to the edges of the table. The slide is provided with a transverse row of circular holes or openings spaced laterally from each other. In one conventional machine of which this invention constitutes an improvement, the table bears three equal diameter holes in a lateral row, the center hole of which is aligned with a depending tube or chute through which the hot cheese, after extrusion from the extruder, is forced vertically upward for vertical ejection through the center hole of the table. To the left and right of the center hole and the vertical chute through which the cheese is forced under pressure, there are provided depending inclined chutes which open at their lower end and are provided with a horizontally and forwardly directed loaf discharge surface. Further, the conventional slide bears a pair of circular holes which are alignable with given one of the holes of the table, and fixed to the slide are metal cylindrical tubes formed of stainless steel or the like having internal diameters on the order of the holes within the slide and those holes within the table. The ends of the metal tubes are open, and, during the filling of the tubes by cheese moving vertically upward within the center opening of the table when a given one of the tubes is coaxially positioned with respect to that opening, permits to some degree the viewing of the interior of the cylinder. During the filling of a given metal tube when it is centered with respect to the central table opening, the operator permits the warm cheese to rise vertically upward until the end of the cheese appears above the open end of the metal tube being filled, whereupon the operator of the machine terminates the filling operation and shifts the slide transverse to the extent that the adjacent unfilled metal tube is now coaxial with the center opening of the table and in alignment with the chute through which the warm cheese passes from the extruder, while the previously filled tube moves into vertical alignment with a laterally offset hole within the table and one of the two discharge chutes to opposite sides of the filling chute bearing the warm cheese. Cheese is discharged by gravity flow from the metal tube taking the form of a cylindrical loaf which then is transferred manually to an appropriate pan, similar to a baking pan, for holding the loaf and permitting the loaves to be submerged within cooling water within an appropriate tank to the side of the machine for cooling and solidification of the cheese.
Such conventional apparatus provides a number of problems. First, since the operator must either peer over the top of the open tube or in some other fashion sense the level of the cheese at or near the top of the opaque stainless steel tube, the measurement of the loaf being formed in terms of mass content of cheese is hardly precise, and the loaves obviously vary in size. Secondly, in this type of apparatus, additional manual steps are necessary for insuring the removal of the cheese from the filled tube, during filling of the unfilled tube, and the placement of the loaf within an appropriate pan for emerging within the cooling water.
In an attempt to reduce the time of forming of the provolone Italian cheese loaves for cooling and solidification and in an attempt to reduce the manual operation in achieving that end, the conventional machine was modified to the extent where the stainless steel tubes were permitted to be removed from the molding apparatus once the cheese filled those tubes to the top or upon slightly overfilling the top of the open tube, in which case, the filled tube was simply picked up manually and placed upright in a body of cooling water, with the tubes constituting vertical columns and rows within a rectangular water-filled open-top tank. It was determined that not only did the cheese tend to fall back out of the open bottom tube but the tubes were difficult to transport since the stainless steel tubes were quite heavy. Further, steel tubes are not only costly but, invariably, the tubes are banged about, resulting in denting of the tubes or bending of the same, which makes removal of the cheese subsequent to cooling and solidification additionally difficult and in some cases impossible. In a further attempt to employ the stainless steel tubes, the interior of the steel tubes were coated whit Teflon to reduce friction and to permit the cheese to slide out after cooling. While this alleviated one of the problems, the Teflon coating additionally increased the cost of the steel tube, and another problem remains of not being sure of the exact level of the cheese due to the opaque nature of the stainless steel tube.